The Louisiana Constitution is legally named the Constitution of the State of Louisiana and commonly called the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and the Constitution of 1974. The constitution is the cornerstone of the law of Louisiana ensuring the rights of individuals, describing the distribution and power of state officials and local government, establishes the state and city civil service systems, creates and defines the operation of a state lottery, and the manner of revising the constitution.

Louisiana's constitution was adopted (adopted in Convention) during the Constitutional Convention in 1974, ratified by the voters of the state on April 20, 1974, and became effective on January 1, 1975.

The beginning of statehood for Louisiana began with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In 1804, the land the United States purchased from France was divided in two territories: 1) the Louisiana Territory (upper territory) and 2) the area below the 33rd parallel (current Louisiana-Arkansas state line), the Orleans Territory each as an organized incorporated territory of the United States. The Territory of Orleans formed the bulk of what today is the State of Louisiana. From the beginning there were border disputes. In 1795, the Treaty of Friendship, Limits, and Navigation Between Spain and the United States, known as Pinckney's Treaty, had set the stage for long nonviolent negotiations. An area between the Mississippi River and Perdido River (excluding New Orleans) was claimed by Spain as part of the West Florida Controversy. Also at issue was the area that became known as the neutral ground on the western border, meaning the territory had undefined borders. These disputes led to an end to diplomatic relations in 1805. Plantation owners proclaimed independence from Spain, establishing the short lived nation of the Republic of West Florida on Sept. 23, 1810, but President James Madison ordered U.S. forces into the area and incorporated it into the Orleans territory.

Senator William Giles of Virginia had already submitted a petition for statehood, in March 1810, based on the ordinance of 1787. The senate passed the petition on April 27, 1810, by a vote of 15 to 8, and ordered the territory to assemble a convention to draft a constitutional amendment. Because the president incorporated the area of West Florida into the Orleans Territory, Representative Julien Poydras (Orleans Territory) on December 17, 1810, petitioned for statehood based on Article III of the Louisiana Purchase. On Dec. 27, U.S. Representative Nathaniel Macon submitted a petition based on the inclusion of the territory of West Florida.

Confrontations were heated in the house that ranged from; the West Florida territory belonged to the Mississippi Territory (U.S. Representative William Bibb of Georgia), that the entire idea of expansion was unconstitutional without the vote of the people (U.S. Representative Richard Johnson of Kentucky), the undetermined borders (U.S. Representative Timothy Pitkin of Connecticut), and U.S. Representative Josiah Quincy's (Massachusetts) strong opposition;

"I address you, Mr. Speaker, with an anxiety and distress of mind with me wholly unprecedented. To me it appears that this measure would justify a revolution in this country. I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion that, if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved.", and "The constitution is a political compact from which the original parties would be released if the assumed principle of this bill became law."^{[citation needed]}

As a reaction to these comments House of Representative territorial delegate George Poindexter of Mississippi accused Quincy of treason. This resulted in a vote that Quincy won by a narrow margin of 56-53. With vindication Quincy continued;

Louisiana statehood would produce states that were free "from their moral obligation, and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare, definitely, for a separation: amicably if they can, violently if they must!^{[citation needed]}